Return to the Planet of the Apes
Cast Starring * Tom Williams as Cr. Bill Hudson (early episodes) * Austin Stoker as Jeff Allen * Claudette Nevins as Judy Franklin / Nova * Edwin Mills as Dr. Cornelius * Phillippa Harris as Dr. Zira * Richard Blackburn as Dr. Zaius / Cr. Bill Hudson (later episodes) * Henry Corden as General Urko Production Crew * Producer ... David DePatie & Friz Freleng * Director ... Doug Wildey Episodes * Flames of Doom * Escape from Ape City * The Unearthly Prophecy / A Date With Judy * Tunnel of Fear * Lagoon of Peril * Terror on Ice Mountain * River of Flames * Screaming Wings * Trail to the Unknown * Attack from the Clouds * Mission of Mercy * Invasion of the Underdwellers * Battle of the Titans Behind the Scenes The premature end of the ''Planet of the Apes'' TV show in December 1974 - half-way through it's run - was obviously a disappointment for those involved, but the simultaneous explosion in Apes merchandise merely spurred them on to find a more economic alternative. The Marvel Comics' series of black-and-white magazines provided the answer: exciting animated adventures produced for a fraction of the cost. The cartoon series, entitled Return to the Planet of the Apes would be drawn by DePatie/Freleng, best known for the Pink Panther cartoon, in association with 20th Century Fox. The director and associate producer for the cartoon was Doug Wildey, who was responsible for the overall design of the series, which began airing in September 1975 on NBC. The involvement of a new production company taking over from APJAC Productions (producer of the five movies) and 20th Century Fox (producer of the TV series) gave the writers free rein to re-interpret the Planet of the Apes story outline. Aspects of all the various ‘’Apes’’ incarnations were combined; characters from the films and the television series were united in the cartoon, despite never having been seen together in live-action before (i.e. Zaius, Zira, Cornelius, Nova & Urko). The apes in Return to the Planet of the Apes - as in Pierre Boulle's [[La Planète des singes|original Planet of the Apes novel]] - were a very advanced race, with just about every convenience modern man had at the time the cartoon was airing; cars, machine guns, a sprawling city, television, films, radar, artillery, trains and even a World War II fighter plane; and yet Cornelius and Zira needed the help of the astronauts to build a functioning hot air balloon. In the movie and subsequent live-action TV series, by contrast, the apes were depicted as primitive, without cars or television, only rifles and some other simple equipment. The plot was simple and was exactly the same as the plot for the first film and the series; astronauts get stranded on a planet populated by intelligent apes, they're seen as a threat and are constantly chased. The three astronauts were Bill Hudson, Jeff Allen (mis-named 'Jeff Carter' in many sources) and Judy Franklin. Traveling aboard the NASA spacecraft 'Venturer' on August 6th, 1976 they are tossed through a time vortex to the year 3979 AD. They find a world that is ruled by intellectual apes; humans, treated as a lesser species, serve as pets, servants, and sport for hunters. While seeking shelter after their ship crash lands, Judy disappears during an earthquake. The two remaining astronauts find refuge in a humanoid colony. As they learn what fate has befallen the Earth, the colony is raided by an army of apes; Bill is captured and brought to ape scientists Cornelius and Zira for experimentation purposes. In his attempt to communicate with them, Bill speaks, shocking Cornelius and Zira, who held a misbelief that humans were incapable of speech. Realising that Bill will be killed by the ape leaders if they learn of his capability, Cornelius and Zira set him free. Bill and Jeff travel underground to find Judy and discover that she has been captured and brainwashed by the Underdwellers, advanced humanoids who had fled underground to escape the apes (similar to the mutants from Beneath the Planet of the Apes). Stories follow the astronauts' adventures as they struggle for survival and seek a way to return to the Earth of their time. They also have to find a way to safeguard the lives of the humans of this time, including Nova. Judy returned about halfway through the series and soon afterwards Col. Ronald Brent - an astronaut born in 2079, who had launched 150 or so years after Bill, Jeff and Judy, yet arrived some fifteen to twenty years earlier – finally showed up (Nova wore his dog-tags from a previous encounter). The Underdwellers would return later in the series. Even the characters evolved as time went by. General Urko, for example, became increasingly paranoid and obsessed with destroying the humans, especially 'Blue Eyes', as Bill was called, while Dr. Zaius became more and more antagonistic towards Urko. Return to the Planet of the Apes had excellent episode-to-episode continuity; it was one big continuous storyline broken up into episodes – the lack of such a consistent story arc was one of the key elements missing from the failed TV show. The writing for the series was definitely the strong point for the cartoon. Storylines were engaging and thoughtful. What the series lacked, however, was quality animation and voicework, though Austin Stoker (who voiced Jeff) had appeared as MacDonald in Battle for the Planet of the Apes, providing a link with the original movies. The series was cancelled in November 1975, after only thirteen episodes and with no conclusion. The final episode brought together many storylines from previous episodes, including an ancient human book, a monstrous snake-bird, as well as General Urko's obsession with destroying the humans, but nothing was resolved and the episode ended like every other, with a semi-cliffhanger. The humans seemed to have escaped destruction at the hands of Urko and his army while Cornelius and Bill were on their way to convince the Ape Council to spare humanity. Did they succeed? Did the Underdwellers ever fulfill their prophecy and return to the surface world, did the mountain apes show the inhabitants of ape city how to live in peace and harmony, and did Bill, Jeff, Judy and Brent ever make it back to their own time? Category:Return to the Planet of the Apes